I was asked to be the guest speaker at a public meeting of the group DAWN, and this is what i said...

Good evening.

When I was asked by my good friend if I would speak at your gathering I felt honored for being considered but a little confused as to why would a social activist's opinions and ideas matter to such a politically active group.

I sought guidance and was advised to speak only the truth as I know it and if my purpose in this gathering is for something the words themselves should be all the proof that I would need.

So here I am. 

Like many of you, I am here because I want to help my country do better, and it seems that there is no escaping that word politics on this journey.

Politics comes from a greek word that I cannot pronounce, and literally means "of, for, or relating to citizens," and is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions 

So here I am, among such illustrious company, to speak of the politics of the things I deal with, the dispossessed, the homeless, the handicapped, the broken and the lost.

Those dying lonely deaths in hurting broken bodies right now because we never got the politics right.

Those abandoned to themselves and their own torments, to die alone, outcast from society where politics does not seem to reach.

I am here to speak of weeping sores and hunger, broken bones and despair.

Where is the true politics in this?

Where is the politics in the wards of the State, the little girls housed in the women's prison because the State has no other means to treat or to deal with them, there since the last Administration was in power and there still.

Where is the politics in the thousands of homeless and hungry that have been here with us, part of the landscape despite boom and bust and boom again?

You have heard politicians tell you in grand speeches in other places that they know exactly what causes these problems,  and I am here to tell you that they lied to you.

None of these problems need forty, twenty or even ten years to solve, so if they knew the cause of all the problems and still did nothing to solve it, what use have we of them? 

We celebrate ourselves in tall shiny structures gleaming in the night sky nwhile thousands upon thousands of our people are literally scraping out an existence, competing with stray dogs for garbage.

Where is the politics in that?

Where is the politics in the little slave girl rescued from the goat pen, blind now in one eye, or the mother making her thirteenth child even as the first twelve eat mud to silence hungry bellies?

I am hearing many people, old politicians and new parrot the activist phrase 'country first' yet none of them seem to have a clue what country first means.

We are not rocks and sand and trees, but a people of many heritages, different hues and varying histories.

Country first is an embrace of that knowledge and a commitment to self and to others to work to lift the downtrodden, the broken and the left behind.

Country first is an understanding in your very core that as long as one of us are hungry we are all hungry.

Someone said to me say to the sky that I am the end of the hunger and mean it, and I say yes, say to the sky that I am the end of hunger and feed someone.

We talk about people power because we think people power is to gather in the street and to march against the State, but for what?

Until we know what we want how can we ask for it?

Where have you heard anyone seriously asked that ALL of our people be made whole and ALL of our people be set free?

We are at the foot of the mountain going around it in circles trying to find a way to the top and I ask you where is the politics in that?

Only when we get it, that we ARE our brothers keeper, that it DOES in fact take a village to raise our children safely to functional adulthood will we begin to climb that mountain.

Only when we remove the hatred and jealousy from our hearts will we hope to see the mountain top, and only when we have unclenched our fists into open hands of love and sharing and outstretch them to those most in need will we ever reach the summit.

I cannot tell you where the politics is here anymore, but I can tell you that others have been this way before, giants of history have been down these roads and along these paths, and that they have left us guides and a map in the records of their lives and in their words.

Like everyone here, one day this body will begin to fade back to the earth from where it came, and I will look back on a lifetime and wonder what did i use it for?

When the sun begins to set on my life and I ask myself what was it all about I want to know that i spent a life that I could be proud to defend in any quarter.

Khalil Gibran said in the Prophet 'Whenever I come to the river to drink I find the Living Water, itself thirsty, and it drinks me while I drink it."

It is in our oneness that we are free, our togetherness, our shared journey along this tired road. Our best selves are still within us and our best days are stretched out before us.

Somewhere in this is my politics, the politics of giving and of service to my fellow man.

I came here to tell you that the time of the lone wolf is over.

That the generation of greed is at an end.

That self glorification and hatred is now passed us by, thrown on the trash heap alongside all those other wasted distracting and delusional things that divided us, that separated us from ourselves and each other.

Seeing what I see everyday, dealing with what I deal with everyday I stand here tired, frustrated but hopeful.

Tired of the sheer number of broken lives that have been caused by our politics, frustrated that despite and overwhelming reversal of fortunes so many things stay the same, but hopeful because of people like this gathering, like all the little gatherings here there and everywhere still searching for the right way, the best way forward for our country.

I know in my heart of hearts that on this journey our purpose IS to be our brothers keepers and that is why I am here

I am absolutely certain that the solution to all of our problems start with the broken in society, that were we  to lift those who fall, to stand in the gap for the broken and the fearful, to be a friend to the lonely and the despairing, and a light to the path of the lost that all the problems that plague our people would find the beginning of their end.

So I came here to tell you this.

That the destiny of this country and all its collective peoples are in our hands, that the moment is upon us, and that    we     are the generation that       we      have been waiting for.

This is our call to action.

That our politics MUST be by, of and for the people, all of the people.

That we should rebuild our families, our neighborhoods and our communities so that our country can be strong once again.

WE need to be parents, and relatives and friends again, - examplars, role models and mentors again.

WE need to be the positive force for change and the very change itself.

We need to discard the politics of greed, racial intolerance and hatred, and embrace instead the politics of brotherhood and one national family once again.

Thank you.

Good night.